Automatic cord retractor for upright floor appliance



March 7, 1967 H. F. DOERSAM ETAL 3,308,247

AUTOMATIC CORD RETRACTOR FOR UPRGHT FLOOR APPLIANCE Filed Sept. l?, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 MKM/#gy March 7, 1967 H. F. DoERsAM ETAL 3,308,247

O AUTOMATIC CORD RETRACTOR FOR UPRGHT FLOOR APPLIANCE Filed Sept. 17, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l United States Patent 3,308,247 AUTOMATIC `CORD RETRACTOR FOR UPRIGHT FLOOR APPLIANCE Henry F. Doersam, North Olmsted, Ohio, and George H. Fitzsimonds, Trumbull, Conn., assgnors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed Sept. 17,1964, Ser. No. 397,081 2 Claims. (Cl. 191-12.2)

Our invention relates to upright floor appliances, and more particularly to an automatic cord retractor for such appliances.

In recent years manufacturers of domestic appliances, including vacuum cleaners of both the canister and upright types, have found it expedient to include automatic cord retractors on their machines. The disadvantages of extra weight and bulk which attend the use of cord retracting devices have been found to be far outweighed by the convenience of such devices. A retractor can be embodied in many domestic appliances, such as canister type vacuum cleaners, with little difculty. However, the upright vacuum cleaner has presented special problems in this respect.

It has been found to be unsatisfactory to mount the retractor within the main housing which encloses the motor, fan, and brushes for the reason that this arrangement necessitates that a larger main housing be provided. With a large main housing, however, an upright vacuum cleaner cannot be maneuvered into narrow areas and beneath low overhanging obstacles. It is manifest then, that the handle for the appliance is left to provide the support for the retractor. Prior attempts to mount the retractor upon the handle have resulted in arrangements which are unstable, uneconomical, or unattractive.

Therefore it is an object of our invention to provide a compact automatic cord retractor which can be conveniently and rigidly mounted upon the handle of an upright floor appliance.

It is another object of our invention to provide an automatic cord retractor for an upright floor appliance in which the handle 4for the appliance provides the sole means of support for the retractor.

. It is still another object of our invention to provide an automatic cord retractor for an upright floor appliance, which retractor is inexpensive to produce and mount.

It is a further object of our invention to provide'an automatic cord retractor for an upright floor appliance having an attractive cover which can be easily assembled upon the retractor.

Further objects and advantages of our invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds. The subject matter which constitutes our invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specication.

In carrying out the object of our invention, in one form thereof, we provide an automatic cord retractor including means for mounting the device on the tubular handle of an upright vacuum cleaner or other upright floor appliance. The retractor comprises a reel assembly and a back plate carrying the brush contact block of the reel, which plate is riveted on the handle at'the point atr which the reel assembly is to be mounted. The reel assembly is securely mounted upon the plate and handle by means of an extended end portion of the spindle for the reel which is passed through an aperture in the plate and securely supported in opposed wall portions of the handle. This cantilevered spindle provides the total support for the reel assembly. The reel assembly is protected by a detachable housing which is snapped upon projections on the back plate.

For a better understanding of our invention, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings in which:

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FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an upright vacuum cleaner, showing our automatic cord retractor mounted upon the cleaner handle.

FIG. 2 is a side view of our cord retractor with a portion of the cover for the retractor broken away to show the internal components.

FIG. 3 is a sectional View taken along lines 3 3 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an exploded view of our cord retractor.

Referring to FIG. l of the drawings, it will be seen that our cord retractor 1 has been mounted upon a handle 2 of an upright vacuum cleaner having a main housing assembly 3 and a dust bag 4. A cord guiding and locking device 5 mounted on the upper region of the handle 2 guides a cord 6 to the user from the retractor 1 and is provided with a locking lever 7 with which the user can lock the cord 6 at a desired withdrawn length.

FIGS. 2-4 reveal the details of our cord retractor 1 and the retractor 1 and the arrangement Iby which it is mounted upon the handle 2 of the cleaner. A rigid supporting back plate 8, shown best in FIG. 4, is riveted upon the handle 2 at points 9 and 10. A contact block 11 is secured upon the plate v8 and is insulated therefrom by a strip of insulating material 12. A pair of contact brushes 13, 14 on the contact block 11 are electrically connected to a length of cord 15 passing through the tubular handle 2 from the brushes 13, 14 to the electric motor for the cleaner (see BIG. 2). 13, 14 are employed in the over-all structure will be described hereinafter.

In order to provide an extremely stable, yet inexpensive means for rotatably mounting the reel assembly 16 upon the cleaner handle 2, an extended length spindle 17 is provided. The spindle 17 includes an extended end portion 18 which enables the spindle 17 to be passed through an elongated aperture 19 in the contact block 11, and other apertures in the insulator 12, the back plate 8, and diametrically opposed wall portions 20, 21 of the tubular handle 2. The end portion 18 of the spindle 17 is firmly supported in the wall portions 20, 21 of the handle 2 by a threaded cap 22 which screws upon the threaded end 23 of the spindle 17 (see FIG. 2). A flattened medial portion 24 of the spindle 17 is received in the elongated aperture 19 in the contact block 11 to prevent relative angular movement between the block 11 and the spindle 17. It will thus be understood from the drawings and the above discussion that the cantilevered spindle 17 provides the sole support for the reel assembly 16 in a simple, but highly effective, mounting arrangement.

The cord reel assembly 16 comprisesa reel for receiving the cord 6 to beI stored, a base ring assembly 26, and a flat spiral spring 27 for continuously driving the reel assembly. The reel is constructed from two sheet metal members in the forms of a disc '28 and a dished annular member 29 secured to the disc 28. The member 29`has a dished central portion 30 upon which the cord 6 is wound. The base `vring assembly' 26 is mounted concentrically within the central portion 30 and is formed from an electrically insulating material. A pair of concentric, radially spaced contact rings 31, 32 are lmounted ilush with the outer face of the base ring assembly 26- in mating relation with the pairof contact brushes 13, 14 on the contact block 11. The contact rings 31, 32 `are electrically c-onnected to the cord 6 by a terminal portion 33 of the cord 6 which passes to the rings 31, 32 through a strain relief member 34 in an aperture in the central portion 30.

The at spiral spring 27 is secured by a rivet 35 to a radially enlarged portion 36 of the spindle 17. The spring 27 is connected at its radially outermost end to the dished central portion 30 at the annular member 29 at a point not The manner in which the brushes shown in the drawings so that the reel assembly 16 is continuously urged in one direction of rotation.

In order to protect the reel assembly 16, a cover 38 is provided. The cover 38 consists of an upper portion 39, which encloses the cord reel assembly 16, and a lower portion 40 which houses a joint formed between the handle 2 and the main housing assembly 3 of the appliance. The cover 38 may be formed from a palstic material and has means for being detachably mounted upon the rigid supporting back plate 8. These means include four elongated slits 41 spaced around the sides of the substantially rectangular upper portion 39 of the cover 38. The supporting back plate 8 has a similar number of tabs 42 extending therefrom, which tabs 42 are engageable in the slits 41 in the upper portion 39. The cover 38 is assembled upon the plate 8 by distorting the cover 38 outwardly and sliding it upon the plate 8 until the tabs 42 snap into the slits 41.

In operation the user pulls upon the end of the cord 6, withdrawing cord from the reel against the tension of the spring 27 through the guiding and locking device 5. The cord reel assembly 16 rotates freely upon a lubricant on the surface of a bearing section 43 of the spindle 17. At the desired withdrawn length the locking lever 7 in the guiding and locking device 5 can be brought into engagement with the cord 6 to prevent the withdrawn cord 6 from being drawn into the retractor 1. When the free end of the cord 6 is then conected to the household power supply, power will be transmitted through the base ring assembly 26 and the contact brushes 13, 14 to the motor.

Our invention is not limited to the particular details of the construction of the embodiment illustrated and We contemplate that various and other modifications and applications will `occur to those skilled in the art. `It is therefore our intention that the appended claims shall cover such modifications and applications as do not depart from the true spirit and scope of our invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An upright floor appliance comprising:

(a) a tubular handle having a first wall portion and a diametrically opposed second wall portion, a pair of aligned apertures formed in said first and second wall portions;

(b) a generally flat plate having a generally centrally located aperture and outwardly extending mounting means integrally formed therewith, said generally fiat plate being fixed to the first wall portion of said tubular handle;

(c) a block of insulating material having an aperture formed therein, said block being fixed to said generally flat plate with the aperture in said block in line with the aperture in said plate;

(d) flexible electrical contact means fixed to said insulated block;

(e) a cord reel for storing cord for the appliance;

(f) a cantilevered spindle for rotatably mounting said reel, one end portion of said spindle extending through the aperture in said insulating block, through the aperture in said generally fiat plate and through the apertures in said handle for securely mounting said spindle on said tubular handle, said cantilevered spindle providing the sole support for said reel;

(g) a spiral spring continuously urging said reel in one Vdirection of rotation for winding cord on said reel;

(h) sliding contact means connected with said cord; and

(i) a cover having an enlarged front wall portion,

relatively narrow top, bottom and side walls integ- `rally formed with said enlarged front wall portion and arranged generally perpendicular thereto, the relatively narrow side walls of said cover being mounted on said outwardly extending mounting means integrally formed on said generally fiat plate, said generally flat plate providing the sole support for -said cover.

2. An upright lioor'appliance comprising:

(a) a tubular handle having a first wall portion and a diametrically opposed second wall portion, a pair of aligned apertures formed in said first and second wall portions;

(b) a generally fiat plate having a generally centrally located aperture formed therein, a first pair of integrally formed mounting tabs etxending upwardly from said generally flat plate, and a second -pair of `integrally formed mounting tabs extending from the sides of said generally fiat plate, said generally fiat plate being fixed to the first wall portion of said tubular handle;

(c) a block of insulating material having an aperture formed therein, said block being fixed to said generally flat plate with the aperture in said block in line with the aperture in said plate;

(d) flexible electrical contact means fixed to said insulated block;

(e) a cord reel for storing cord for the appliance;

(f) a cantilevered spindle for rotatably mounting said reel, one end portion of said spindle extending through the aperture in said insulating block, through the aperture in said generally flat plate and through the apertures in said handle for securely mounting said spindle on said tubular handle, said cantilevered spindle providing the sole support for said reel;

(g) a spiral spring continuously urging said reel in one direction of rotation for winding cord on said reel;

(h) sliding contact means connected with said cord; and

(i) a cover having an enlarged front wall portion, relatively narrow top, bottom and side walls integrally formed with said enlarged front wall portion and arranged generally perpendicular thereto, a first pair of slots formed in the top wall of said cover, a second pair of slots formed in the side walls of said cover, said cover being formed of flexible plastic material so that the upwardly extending tabs on said generally fiat plate may be inserted within the slots formed in the top wall of said cover and the side walls of said cover may be deformed outwardly to position the tabs extending from the sides of said generally fiat plate within the slots formed in the side Walls of said cover.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 974,477 11/1910 Day 242-107.7 1,247,358 11/1917 Zwilling 191-12.2 1,682,421 8/1928 Rosenbaum 242-100 i 1,761,650 6/1930 Beardsley et al. 2,333,559 11/1943 Grady et al 242-107.6 2,342,912 2/ 1944 White 242-85 X 2,575,156 11/1951 Baugh et al 242-l07.7 2,672,304 3/1954 Kaufman 242-107 2,747,683 5/1956 Ziegler 15-323 X 2,854,686 10/1958 Hansen l5-323 X FRANK J. COHEN, Primary Examiner, STANLEY W. GILREATH, Examiner.: W: S: BURDEN; Assistent Examiner-L 

1. AN UPRIGHT FLOOR APPLIANCE COMPRISING: (A) A TUBULAR HANDLE HAVING A FIRST WALL PORTION AND A DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED SECOND WALL PORTION, A PAIR OF ALIGNED APERTURES FORMED IN SAID FIRST AND SECOND WALL PORTIONS; (B) A GENERALLY FLAT PLATE HAVING A GENERALLY CENTRALLY LOCATED APERTURE AND OUTWARDLY EXTENDING MOUNTING MEANS INTEGRALLY FORMED THEREWITH, SAID GENERALLY FLAT PLATE BEING FIXED TO THE FIRST WALL PORTION OF SAID TUBULAR HANDLE; (C) A BLOCK OF INSULATING MATERIAL HAVING AN APERTURE FORMED THEREIN, SAID BLOCK BEING FIXED TO SAID GENERALLY FLAT PLATE WITH THE APERTURE IN SAID BLOCK IN LINE WITH THE APERTURE IN SAID PLATE; (D) FLEXIBLE ELECTRICAL CONTACT MEANS FIXED TO SAID INSULATED BLOCK; (E) A CORD REEL FOR STORING CORD FOR THE APPLIANCE; (F) A CANTILEVERED SPINDLE FOR ROTATABLY MOUNTING SAID REEL, ONE END PORTION OF SAID SPINDLE EXTENDING THROUGH THE APERTURE IN SAID INSULATING BLOCK, THROUGH THE APERTURE IN SAID GENERALLY FLAT PLATE AND THROUGH THE APERTURES IN SAID HANDLE FOR SECURELY MOUNTING SAID SPINDLE ON SAID TUBULAR HANDLE, SAID CANTILEVERED SPINDLE PROVIDING THE SOLE SUPPORT FOR SAID REEL; (G) A SPIRAL SPRING CONTINUOUSLY URGING SAID REEL IN ONE DIRECTION OF ROTATION FOR WINDING CORD ON SAID REEL; (H) SLIDING CONTACT MEANS CONNECTED WITH SAID CORD; AND, (I) A COVER HAVING AN ENLARGED FRONT WALL PORTION, 